Midsummer Eve Bonfire on Skagen Beach is a 1906 painting by P.S. Kryer. The massive piece, which took many years to complete, features prominent Skagen residents as well as many of the Skagen Painters’ fellow artists.
The Skagen Painters were a close-knit group of mostly Danish painters who gathered each summer in the fishing village of Skagen in the far north of Jutland starting in the late 1870s to paint the local fishermen and their own gatherings and celebrations.
Peder Severin Kryer (1851–1909), who was born in Stavanger, Norway, but raised in Copenhagen, first visited Skagen in 1882 and visited nearly every summer until he finally made Skagen his permanent home in 1889 after he wed Marie Triepcke.
He had already established a reputation for his depictions of fishermen in Hornbaek on Zealand’s north coast, and his trips to France had exposed him to the Impressionist movement. He quickly established himself as one of the most influential and enthusiastic painters in Skagen, producing masterpieces that highlighted the unique qualities of the local light in his beach scenes and a number of enduring pieces that captured the lively gatherings of the artists.
Numerous artists from the colony are shown in the painting gathered around the customary midsummer bonfire that is lit in Denmark on Sankt Hans aften. The rest of the villagers are on the right, while the village’s influential individuals and artists are on the left. Kryer first drew a sketch of the incident in 1892, but it took him 14 years to finish the large painting, which is 149.5 cm (58.9 in) by 257 cm in size (101 in).
In her book Northern Lights, Lise Svanholm describes Kryer taking his easel onto the beach at Skagen sterby in 1903 and sketching for several hours. In the foreground, Kryer’s daughter Vibeke stands in front of Marie Kryer’s brother, Valdemar Triepcke, and the mayor’s son, Walter Schwartz.
Otto and Alba Schwartz come next, then Michael Ancher in his straw hat beside Degn Brøndum, the innkeeper. The next row includes Brndum’s daughter, Anna Ancher in a green shawl, Henry Brodersen, the treasurer’s wife, and Schrder, the postmaster, with his little wife Soffi.
The painting also features the author Holger Drachmann, Captain P.K. Nielsen, the head of the lifeboat service, and Brodersen, the town’s treasurer, who is holding Mrs. Dethlef Jürgensen on his arm.
On the right, Frederikke, who is gazing up in wonder at her husband, is accompanied by the artist Laurits Tuxen. Sketches of the scene created by Tuxen are on display in Skagens Museum under the title Krier Painting the Midsummer Bonfire, 1906. Hugo Alfvén is leaning on a fishing boat with Marie on his arm as the red and orange flames are blowing over toward him.
Although Kryer himself thought the piece was too dark, especially the sky, which should have been brighter, it is one of the most significant in the collection at Skagens Museum. Although he was aware that it wasn’t one of his best pieces, he thought it would be of significant historic importance. However, Vibike, his daughter, recalls a celebration where Drachmann threw his glass to the ground as he signed the painting.
